VIDEO: Making a Difference Through METCO

A new video about the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) produced by Pioneer Institute was featured at METCO’s recent annual meeting held at the Boston Foundation.

METCO allows 3,300 Boston and Springfield students to attend school in surrounding suburbs.  “In this day and age, we shouldn’t go through our entire educational experience without meeting someone who looks different than us,” said METCO CEO Milly Arbaje-Thomas.

The video centers around the friendship between two Wayland High School students; one who lives in Wayland and the other from Boston. It also features interviews with Arbaje-Thomas and Mabel Reid-Wallace, Director of Wayland’s METCO program.

Pioneer research has found that METCO participants, more than three quarters of whom are African-American or Latino, dramatically outperform their Boston and Springfield Public Schools counterparts in terms of the percentage of students who achieve proficiency on state tests, college attendance, and college success. Graduation rates for program participants are far better than those in Boston and Springfield and even outpace state averages.

METCO is an essential option for Boston and Springfield parents, and its successes deserve the attention and support of policymakers.